GOCOP

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Presidency divides Yoruba Muslims over 2015 endorsement

The Yoruba Muslims may have been divided by interests from the
Presidency at Aso Rock, leaving in its wake the League of Imams and Alfas on
one hand and Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) on another hand, over whether to endorse or not the candidacy of Jonathan/Sambo ticket, reports
ITRealms.

The clerics under the aegis of the League of Imams and Alfas were
reported to have ignored the Presidency over an invitation to them for a
meeting to lure them into purported endorsement of the Jonathan/Sambo ticket in
the forthcoming presidential election.

The meeting, ITRealms gathered was to have Vice President,
Muhammad Namadi Sambo, representing his boss, and was earlier scheduled for
last Tuesday in Akure, Ondo State but had to be rescheduled for Wednesday in
the same state for lack of adequate mobilisation.

According to sources, learning from the experience of their
Christian counterparts who were recently enmeshed in a controversial N7 billion
scandal that has caused a crack among Nigerian Christians, the leadership of
the League of Imams and Alfas in the six South West states, and Edo and Delta
States decided not to be involved in an "embarrassing" meeting that
could cause a crack in the rank of the Muslim Ummah.

A similar meeting arranged with Yoruba Muslim leaders and
fixed for Lagos by the Presidency recently was equally botched for the same
reason cited by the League of Imams and Alfas just a day before it was to come
up.

Investigation revealed that the leaders of the League
contacted one another and resolved not to be part of any meeting at this time
to maintain their neutrality with no leaning towards any political party or
individuals.

The Akure meeting, said to be coordinated by the Chief Imam
of Owo, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe, the Secretary-General of the League, who was
vigorously mobilising his colleagues in the League might end up in a fiasco
given the reluctant posture of the other leading Imams in the region.

From Ibadan, Lagos, Markaz, Agege, Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode,
Osogbo, Ilaro, Ado Ekiti and Auchi as well as other major cities of the region,
the common question on the leaps of the Imams was: "Why now?"

Following the failure of the Lagos meeting, the Presidency,
in a bid to break the ranks of the Yoruba Muslim Ummah, embarked on an
alternative meeting with the League of Imams and Alfas and another with the
Muslim Students Society of Nigeria.

The President of MSSN, Alhaji Sirajudeen Abdul Aziz, who
volunteered to mobilise the leaders of the group for the meeting despite a
resolution at a recent leadership meeting in Akure, Ondo State not to attend
any such controversial meeting could be acting on his own.

The National Secretary of MSSN, Alhaji Ibrahim Giwa, was said
to have warned Abdul Aziz against engaging in an exercise not approved by the
executive arm of the body but the latter seems to have decided to go ahead all
alone in his own name and not that of the MSSN.

Reflecting on the repercussion of such controversial action,
the leadership of MSSN resolved to disown any such meeting at this politically
volatile period warned that nobody should use the name of the group for any
selfish political gain.

Meanwhile no particular date has been fixed for the
Presidency’s purported meeting with the leadership of MSSN that is supposed to
come up at the Presidential Villa in Abuja before the presidential election on March
28, 2015.

In the same vein, the Muslim Community of Oyo State has vowed
not to attend the meeting scheduled for Akure by President Goodluck Jonathan to
persuade South West Muslims to vote for him on March 28.

In a statement issued in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on
Tuesday and signed by Alhaji Ishaq Kunle Sanni, its chairman, the Muslim
Community said: "Our decision to boycott this meeting is in tandem with
the decision of others like Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs
(NSCIA) and MUSWEN.

"The two apex Islamic bodies were totally averred to any
meeting with the President until after the elections.

"It would be a disservice to the unity of the Muslim
Ummah in general for any Muslim group in Nigeria to disobey the order of these
umbrella organizations.

"The Muslim Community of Oyo State is not oblivious of
millions of dollars changing hands to buy people's conscience. This we are
aware has created divisions in some religious organisations.

"Anybody who goes to Akure to meet the President from
Oyo State is not representing the Muslim community of Oyo State.

"We urge people of Oyo State and Muslims in the South
West to vote according to their conscience and not be deceived by political demagogues
masquerading as friends of the people just for the sake of canvassing for their
support only to dump them after achieving their aims.

"What these politicians are practising is nairatocracy
and not democracy."